Book cover of Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past

Book description

'A huge, fizzing omnium-gatherum of a book . . . marvellous' Daily Telegraph
'Witty, wise and elegant . . . a classic of history itself' The Spectator
'Grave and witty, suave yet pointed . . . full of energy' Hilary Mantel
'An enthralling investigation . . . consistently entertaining' The…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Making History as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Meant to be entertaining as well as informative, this book romps without reverence through the lives and writings of historians, some from beyond the Western world, from ancient Greece to today. That’s 2500 years of written history!

You'll discover that, rather than being just the sober history that teachers may have taught you, historians have come in all forms and with all kinds of minds. They’ve argued with each other, sometimes been fools, showed themselves entirely human—and yet left us some of the world’s greatest texts of religion, literature, and learning.

Cohen defines “historian” controversially as well as…

If you love Making History...

Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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